News : MINI Paceman leaked before Paris unveil

A great spot by the MINI-oriented Motoring File website means that we’ve been ‘treated’ to a pre-Paris reveal of its the marque’s next model. The story, which was published here, shows the MINI Paceman in its natural environment, south east London.

The new car, which is a more lifestyle-focused version of the Maxi, sorry, Countryman, comes with two doors, a sloping roof and dramatically raked side-windows. It’s closest rival is likely to be the Range Rover Evoque, although the Paceman is expected to be cheaper. Like the Countryman, the Paceman will not be built in the UK, but in Graz, Austria.

 

Keith Adams

47 Comments

  1. To me that just looks like a rather tall 3 door hatchback, no way does it have the striking looks of the Evoque.

    Still, I’m sure BMW’s accountants know what they are doing, and feel that the small additional production volumes will be profitable…

  2. Hmm….

    Quite like it in profile. However, the front end verges on the ugly and why lose the characteristic rear lights?

    Like the Countryman it’s a rather unhappy combination of small car styling but on a big car. As I’ve said before, if BMW had kept Rover there would not have been the need to stretch MINI so far.

  3. @2, Ayd Instone,

    It’s got a stupid name because it’s a stupid car for people who need to be told what to buy by ‘lifestyle’ magazines…

    So it’s basically like the standard Bini, but taller and even uglier, and with pointlessly slanty rear windows so the sprogs can’t see out of it…

    It’s like a more exclusive Golf Plus Coupe for Sloanies.

  4. Not as ugly as the Countryman but it would be absolutely pointless but for the original being so short on space. Not that this one’s going to win any awards on that front mind.

  5. Apart from the unchanged front end, it is less hideous than the Countryman, which is a change for the better. However, apart from MINI diehards, it doesn’t stand a hope in hell if it’s pitched directly against the Evoque. Dacia, maybe…

    But if your choice of car is really meant to say something about you, what this choice would say I hate to think!

  6. Chris has hit the nail on the head. I think it is a vulgar POS for people who read OK and Hello! and other dross like that

  7. @10, francis brett,

    Yeah, but you’d have to wait a while for the John Cooper version that comes with chromed buckets and a ‘go-faster’ stripe.

  8. Her licence is spending a holiday in Swansea at the mo due to being nicked for speeding twice in a week and blaming others. Naughty!

  9. Some more fashion in a bottle from BMW.
    However, despite being assembled abroad, it will no doubt help the bigger picture of the booming UK car industry.
    Like many other niche products, this will be bought on style over substance, God bless ’em.

  10. “Like the Countryman, the Paceman will not be built in the UK, but in the company’s Graz factory in Austria.”?
    Huh, when did BMW buy the plant form Magna?
    It’s just contract manufactured by Magna-Steyr along with all the other BMW 4x4s as BMW lost their 4×4 knowledge when they flogged LR to Ford in 2000.

  11. Bmw is getting very lazy, just banging out more and more ugly and pointless cars.
    This being one of them
    They obviously cant be arsed to package a car either.. Hence Maxi sized Minis.. For crash worthiness apparently.

    So how come….
    Toyota/Peugeot/Citroen and daihatsu, VW, Renault, Suzuki, Kia, Hyundai, etc all produce smaller more spacious cars than the MINI

    Where as BMC produced a tiny, innovative, fun and spacious (for its size) car.. Which should have been sold at a premium, demand was there, image etc, but BMC were more worried about under cutting fords ancient models, and therefore made a loss on every mini sold.

    BMW are doing the exact opposite, big, heavy, conventional, and cramped (for its size) cars sold at a premium.

    I guess at least the quality is now there.

    If only BMW would produce a proper Mini.. In the mood of the 1959 original, than all these other versions would be far far more palatable.

    Go on BMW set your engineers a task to design the smallest car for four passengers and their luggage !

  12. @17, there’s some mileage in that argument. For the life of me I don’t understand why this car has to be so big and heavy yet have such a small interior space. It’s now so badly packaged these days, I question it’s roots to the original car which was packed full of innovative ideas, which MINI lacks. These models, and probably the next generation, totally miss the point.

    If anything, Toyota’s IQ (AM Cygnet) seems to be more Mini than what the MINI is.

  13. @18 The I.Q is the genuine successor to the original mini without looking like anything else on the market,i for one like it and it makes the Smart car pricey and pointless,The MINI has been a success story and richly deserved in terms of employment so fair do’s.But some of these niche models are shameless barrel scrapers,expensive and pointless at worst and low volume sellers at best,the coupe is a slow seller with little interest shown,the countryman is pigeon-holed as a affluent mothers school run car and looks over proportioned,that said the countryman sells,BMW need to pull something revolutionary out the bag next time round,because surely the samey looks are going to wear thin,and its just not MINI in town now,people are buying DS3’s in numbers and other car manufactorers are having thier own take on premium small city cars.

  14. We had a banter about “inbreed” few days ago, here’s a living proof, bmw starts to look like a dog trying to catch its own tail in circle. What next? the same with half a rear door on the wrong side for RHD spec models only or will it be barn like doors, just to ensure that rear parking aid option is ticked, as visibility is poor…As some pointed out, it will sell thanks to “lifestyle” rags, the ones you may find on this car rear parcel shelf, assuming it’s large enough…In that sector, DS3 is still my favourite but I find the new Vauxhall quite cute and cheeky.

  15. @25,And i think BMW should take heed,when they took over Rover the company doubled in size overnight,making similar volumes of cars,they tried to move Rover upmarket and failed,amongst other problems of course,they should have learned a lesson or two about brand dilution,even making these niche cars dont come cheap,especially premium priced niche-which are not going to put food on BMW’s table,if anything they are nibbling thier own cheese if sales are poor,the Evoque has this segment nailed shut,who would buy a paceman with thier own money?

    Before long,the MINI brand that has for now been seen as premium will suffer from stiff competition,the Citroens,ADAMS and so on are surely going to chip away at MINI sales because customers are going to twig that there is an alternative to the mini which will be more individual and cheaper but with qualityto match-who even knows that Fords next KA will be a shining star?

  16. I agree with Francis, I think the bubble will burst sooner or later. It remains to be seen whether BMW will ever come up with something original and innovative to up the ante. And if the Bini does go tits up (and I hope not for the sake of the Oxford workforce) then I hope BMW will build something else in its place, such as a Series BMW.

  17. @27&28
    I belive that Oxford plants are the same quality that all the other of the BMW group, but in a crisis scenario I dont belive that Germans will sacrifice working places in Germany to save plants in Oxford. As you know all the renault twingos (and the shi… Wings) are produced in my country in the Revoz-Novo Mesto plant (it was also a BMC plant)but the French made it clear, they will not sacrifice any working place in their country to save ours. You can tell that is a socialistic thinking but you can not move all the production in china intia or even to drill the antartics penguins to do cheaper cars….

  18. @29,BMW regret to this day not bringing a 1-2 series car to longbridge and making a better go at integregating BMW management(see book-end of the road)i think now if the MINI did suffer a sales collapse-a remote chance but still possible,i dont think BMW would a second thought about a BMW line at cowley,Germany have had thier fair share of union troubles,the car unions very powerful and the shop floor workers well paid,time and agian in the U.K Ellesmere port and Sunderland car plants are the most productive car manufactorers in europe,with some ancient car plants in germany,they could not match us.Coupled with over-capacity the next five years is going to be interesting and scary in equal measure!

  19. You know its lucky that Apple arent in the business of building cars – if they were this thing would be sued by practically every company going – couldnt be any more derivative if they tried.
    They’ve even ripped of poor old Issigonis (tail lights), poor guy must be spinning in his grave fast enough to light Southampton.
    Not to mention the ‘badge engineering’

    We’ve got the Clubfoot, Pacemaker, Town & Country (sorry, wrong rip off merchant), Specials (now when you say special…) and countless others. Its getting to the point of farce. The version that cannot be discussed in polite company is wider than an SD1 and could challenge a Freelander I for height. Note to BMW: Its supposed to be small, thats why they call it a Mini!

    Not to mention that ‘racing’ version – goes through tires faster than an SRi with busted tracking – and labelled perfectly for its owners – GP – Gormless Prat. Is it me or is 215hp and 150mph a bit suspect? On paper my Safrane does 27.6mph per 1000 and redlines at 6000. It weighs 1600kg and has 136hp. Assuming you got it to redline in top you’d be doing 175+mph. On less than half the power… with a 4-speed slushbox.

  20. John Cooper Works…

    To paraphrase Guigaro…

    “Oh my god! they’ve done it to the Countryman too!”

    Its like promoting Arnold Rimmer as the worlds greatest male model – its just something you dont do!

  21. @30 do not want to argue with you and i belive that british plants are high quality but…..remember what happened in germany when Opel had problems (the goverment stand in an american owned business but with german workforce). Is a question of politics not of economy and quality. And belive me if they have to chose they will fire a british worker not a german one.
    in any case i belive you about the british car industry but (again) all the british producers are owned by foregin capital (or almost all) -that is a fact
    but i hope to have enough wealth and taste to drive pure british cars as i do till now

  22. If it was scaled down to 75 or 50% it would look quite Mini. Other than the generic rear lights.

    I agree with comments that the iQ is probably as close to the spirit of the original Mini as you can get. As the Aston Martin Cygnet, it even gets an Austin Mini grille!

    http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01544/aston-martin-cygne_1544666c.jpg

    The iQ doesn’t seem to sell though.

    The original Ka was also something of a spiritual successor – cheap, small, funky, innovative. Ford are copying the 80s Mini grille too, the next Ka could look more Mini than a MINI!

  23. It should be remembered that the USA is now the biggest market for MINI sales, ahead of even the UK…….and the MINI Countryman is a top seller there:

    MINI USA Sales up a Shocking 84% for August!
    “MINI USA reported the best August ever with sales of 5,718 automobiles, an increase of 83.9 percent from the 3,109 sold in August, 2011. What’s driving this increase? The volume leaders are (as expected) the R56 hardtop and the R60 Countryman. In fact the Countryman broke the 2,000 unit barrier for a month in August which would have normally surpassed hardtop sales if it wasn’t for an almost 50% increase of sales for MINI’s stalwart model.”
    More Details:
    http://www.motoringfile.com/2012/09/04/mini-usa-sales-up-a-shocking-84-for-august/

  24. The Americans are starting to embrace smaller engined cars.

    How is the Fiat 500 selling over there? Even Ford have reintroduced the Fiesta there (after the mk1. Mind you, the new one is 98 Focus sized).

  25. It is another niche for the maker of cars for the trendy set. It’s the badge that sells not the looks unfortunately, and the lack of innovation is not suprising as they are trying to keep the costs down to make profits on what is supposed to be a small car. BMW hoped that the orange tan brigade would up size to a 1 or X1, but as this has not happened they have gone niche filling again making the MINI a MAXI to grow sales without any thought what it actually does to the brand!

  26. @17 The X5 has always been built in BMW’s US assembly plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Whilst the first version of the X3 was indeed contracted out to the Austrians, the current version is also built in Spartanburg, as is the X6.

  27. Don’t understand what the problem is, if you like one and can afford one, buy one, if not, buy something else. For instance, I wouldn’t touch any French car with a ten-foot bargepole, but thats my choice. I would prefer if this was being built in the UK.

    The general trend in the US and Canada is for smaller cars (you can see that when looking at the types of cars in supermarket car parks). I still wouldn’t fancy driving a Fiat 500 on an Interstate, the HGVs are too big and go too fast to feel comfortable in a skateboard like the 500.

  28. Image 2 and 3 look more like Vienna to me whereas the other images look far too gentrified for Peckham; after all, the writer did say South East London!!

  29. Oh and about the car itself?… well its a million miles better looking than the ill named Countryman. Of course, that would not be at all difficult. So sat alongside that monstrosity of a carbuncle its gorgeous; on its own fairly Standard Vanguard-ish and next to an Evoque somewhat of an ugly duckling.

    There is a pattern emerging here and it is this; every time The Bavarians elect for a truck maker to bolt the bits together it seems to emerge as just that, rather Tutonic looking and not at all Mini-esque. As the writer eluded these two bed fellows are rather more Maxi than Mini and lets face it the former was not so pretty as the latter in their original incarnations and today is no different.

  30. @45
    and Ford are too with the Fiesta sized/based EcoSport 4×4
    http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/News/Search-Results/First-Official-Pictures/Ford-Eco-Sport-2012-first-official-pictures/

    Larger SUV’s have killed sales of excutive type cars.
    A lot of people who used to buy a Focus type hatch now buy Qashqui or the Ford Kuga medium type SUV’s……same thing is happening now in the supermini class of small cars with the Juke, Countryman/Paceman, Ford Ecosport and the forthcoming Fiat 500 based 4×4 SUV.

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